Several hundred schools hit by water crisis

Jack Lewis, 80, collects bottled water supplied by the Scottish government Several hundred schools in Northern Ireland have been affected by burst pipes and other flooding incidents over the Christmas period.

However NI Education Minister Caitriona Ruane said she was hopeful that the "vast majority" of schools will reopen.
The water crisis has continued to affect thousands of properties with supplies disrupted to 40,000 homes overnight.
However the number of those completely cut off has dropped to less than 500.
Northern Ireland Water, which is responsible for providing water and sewerage services in NI, said it would be at least "three or four more days" before everyone was reconnected.
The company said it is now visiting customers who have contacted it on more than one occasion and asked anyone still without a water supply to contact the call centre on 08457 440088.
Many schools in NI are due to reopen on Tuesday after the Christmas break.
The education minister said the company had been asked to ensure rotations of supply would not happen during school times.
Ms Ruane said the cost of the damage to schools would be "very expensive" and that NI Water had "questions to answer".
Special school Thousands of pounds of equipment were destroyed at one school in Antrim where more than 30 pipes burst a week ago.
Three classrooms and the physiotherapy room at Riverside Special School were badly damaged and water ran down the walls into the interactive whiteboard which will cost £4,000 to replace. Even the baubles on the Christmas tree filled with water. dominican republic divorce

Reservoirs

• NI Water gets about 50% of its water from Lough Neagh.
• The company has said such source reservoirs are not the problem.
• Service reservoirs, large concrete tanks, should be about four metres full of water at this time of year, but some are down to half a metre.
• There are about 1,200 service reservoirs around NI.

Thousands were left without supplies over the Christmas break because of burst pipes, caused by the thaw after freezing conditions.

The minister responsible for NI Water, Conor Murphy has defended his position in the face of mounting criticism over its handling of the water crisis.
The Ulster Unionist leader Tom Elliott had called for his resignation.
NI Water's director of engineering procurement, Trevor Haslett, has said that the company has been "on top of" finding, fixing and repairing leaks during the water crisis.
Speaking on BBC Radio Ulster, Mr Haslett defended NI Water's decision not to seek help from Water UK sooner.
Water UK supports water companies and can give help and equipment in crises.
'No requirement' Mr Haslett said that NI Water had "deployed sufficient resources on the ground" since the water crisis began.
"We brought in our own contracting staff and engineers locally," he said.

“Start Quote

Any additional resources that we required were certainly brought in.”

End Quote Trevor Haslett NI Water director of engineering procurement

"Any additional resources that we required were certainly brought in. We have numerous contractors working for us around the clock."

When asked why NI Water had not asked for equipment or engineers from Water UK, Mr Haslett said that "there was no requirement" to do so.
"At peak we had 26 local tankers and we still have some tankers operating, filling the smaller reservoirs."
A full list of areas where the water supply has been turned off is available on the  along with a list of locations where temporary water supplies have been set up.